The field of personal care products includes diapers, training pants, adult incontinence articles and feminine hygiene products like tampons and sanitary napkins, also called pads. In the course of development of such products, it is useful, indeed almost a requisite, that such items be tested to determine how well they function in use. Such testing may be done by a "use test" in which people wear the item to be tested for a finite time and return the used item for evaluation, usually also giving their opinion of the item. Use testing is, however, a rather tedious and time consuming exercise and so is usually reserved for the products most likely to be commercialized or closest to commercialization. The examination of items tested with genuine body fluids also exposes the researcher to any viruses or diseases which may be present therein. Moreover, for feminine hygiene applications, genuine menses fluid is a highly variable substance which has a great range of viscosity and other properties differing from woman to woman and even over short time periods in each woman, making testing with actual menses fluid somewhat problematical.
As a result of this concern for safety, cost and variability, a number of artificial body exudates have been developed. One such fluid is an artificial feces (BM) used in the testing diapers and the like, which is described in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 5,356,626, commonly assigned. Another such fluid is known as "Z-Date", available from PPG Industries, Inc. of Pittsburgh, Penn., which is an artificial menses consisting of water, red dye, and a thickener. Yet another artificial menses fluid is mentioned in U.S. Pat. No. 4,321,924, incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, at column 7, lines 51-60.
Previous menses simulants, though useful, have proven unsatisfactory in the emulation of many properties of actual menses. Features such as viscosity, cell size, debris content and others have not been provided to the degree necessary for the reliable testing of today's highly engineered, high performance products. There remains, therefore, a need for an artificial menses fluid which more closely mimics actual menses fluid yet which is safe to use, consistent in properties, and cost effective, and it is an object of this invention to provide such a fluid.